For nearly all the years that the al-Assad family ruled Syria, silence reigned. No one spoke freely, fearful of who might hear. Everyone knew the consequences of dissent: disappearance into government prisons, from which few ever returned.
It had been 13 years since those opposed to President Bashar al-Assad first hoped to follow revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya by overthrowing their own autocratic leader: 13 years of bloodshed and death, of homes and loved ones lost, of lives abandoned and ruptured.
As Saturday turned to Sunday the first day in more than five decades that dawn broke without an al-Assad in the presidential palace the streets were loud with joy. Nonstop celebratory gunfire crackled around Damascus, the capital, like so many fireworks displays.
Our hearts are dancing with joy, Walaa Salameh, 35, a resident of the Damascus area, said in a phone interview. We can't predict the future, and anything is possible, but the most important thing is we got rid of this oppressive regime.
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